


paper in the water

by orphan_account



Series: Orphanage Verse [3]
Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-15
Updated: 2007-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-11 21:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/117195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 3 of the Orphanage-Verse: in which bills pile up and Billy likes to flirt</p>
            </blockquote>





	paper in the water

_July_

~*~

Unpaid bills tended to pile up as time passed. It wasn't just that everything was expensive. Mainly, it was because kids destroyed things. Hands, feet, magic. Everything was fair game as long as something ended up in shambles.

Harry sighed as he put one of the bills onto the 'urgent' pile. It was astronomical. The repair shop on Diagon Alley was making millions off of them. They'd had to get an antiquities dealer at one point, to get all the things repaired that had gone to pieces after Epicia had blown up over a prank Billy had played on her. She had quite the temper, unfortunately. And it didn't help that repairing antiquities was not as easy as it sounded. If it could have been done with a simple wave of the wand, Harry was sure Ron would have had it figured out by now.

"We should get rid of all the expensive stuff," he proposed to Ron when the other man glanced over, catching his eye. "Maybe we can send it over to Andromeda's place, let them put it in their attic or something."

Ron frowned. "Doesn't our place have an attic?"

"Locked," Harry said. "We tried to get inside a few years ago, during that summer before our fifth year, remember? With Sirius? It didn't budge for him, either, despite the Black blood."

"Why didn't you call in the Ministry?"

"Are you kidding?" Harry stared at him. "Sirius wouldn't let anyone from the Ministry set foot into Grimmauld Place back then. And even now, I'd think twice about letting them poke around here. It's probably just as well the attic and the cellar are tightly locked up so that nothing can get through one way or another."

Ron put a hand on his arm. "Hey, no need to get testy. I was just wondering. You never talk about it."

"Because there is nothing to talk about. This place might look a lot better now that it's renovated, cleaned and nicely decorated, but let me put it this way: you want to ignore the rest of the house, and hope that it'll ignore us back."

"Don't you think there might be interesting stuff there, though? The Blacks weren't exactly poor scraps. Who knows what kind of stuff is hidden in the rooms we haven't accessed."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Are you looking for Dark Artifacts, or for another adventure? Because neither seems likely to help out any with the bills. So."

"Are you so sure?" Ron interrupted, not put off by Harry's sharp tone. "What if we find something valuable? You know how the Goblins are. They'd pay a lot of gold to get their fingers back on things that belong to them. And Bill knows some people. Cursebreakers and Relic-hunters would certainly be interested in whatever the Black family managed to acquire over the years." He paused, then said, "This could go a long way to finance this whole set-up."

"If you're so eager to go up there and deal with some more black magic, go ahead," Harry said. He didn't sound happy at all. "And get yourself killed while you're at it."

"Harry... don't be stupid. I'll have professionals to back me up. You won't even have to be nearby, and I did promise not to pressure you into doing magic; I'm not about to break my promise, okay?"

Harry took a deep breath. "Okay. Fine. Like I said, whatever you want. It's not like this is just my house anymore, it's ours. Feel free to forage it for goods."

The fact that it was actually still Sirius' didn't bother Harry. It wasn't like Sirius wanted it; he'd given it to Harry, and since Harry considered himself about as married to Ron as they could be without the official rites, he'd decided to go with the whole 'what's mine is yours' rule.

"Harry," Ron said. He looked exasperated.

"I told you, it's fine," Harry said. "I honestly don't mind. Though I don't think you'll find much. If you can even break any of the seals. Like I said, Sirius and I, we already -"

"- tried, yes."

Harry snorted. "Back to the issues at hand, what happens to the food bills? Do you have the folder we're collecting them in? And there's the payments for electricity and water over here. It's... a lot. Can we pack all that on the government again? That reminds me, Hermione said something about a new law?"

Ron rubbed his nose. "I'm not sure. If you mean the tax thing, I fell asleep reading it, and I don't think they'll pass it anyway, there's no way the likes of Malfoy will want to pay for the poor and helpless. _You_ know how things are over there at the moment. There's not a faction over ten percent of the votes, everyone's split up into fifths and twelfths."

"Can they even do that?"

"Do what?" Sheryl asked. She'd just wandered into the kitchen, grocery bags under her arms. "Oh, you guys are doing the accounting? I've got the bill for these somewhere in my wallet, you can add it all into this month's."

"Is that all?" Harry nodded at the bags.

"Oh, no, I managed to rope Billy into helping, he's coming with three more."

Ron's jaw dropped. "Three more? What are you trying to do, feed an army?"

Sheryl grinned. "Just the two of you usually manage to devour one of these bags. Add the other kids, me, and maybe Hermione if she does come over for dinner -"

"I thought she was working late today?" Harry asked.

"There's a owl," Sheryl pointed out. "I didn't have the hand to take the letter off it."

Harry half-rose, but Ron pushed him back down. "I'm going, don't worry. You can help with dinner."

"I thought I was helping with dinner?" Billy entered the kitchen. He looked like he was going to collapse under the weight of the groceries.

Ron smirked. "Like you tried to help last time?"

Sheryl poked Billy and pointed. "Put those over there, above the fridge." Then she turned to Ron. "And no, not like last time. He promised, no dirty come-ons this time."

"Like he'll keep to that promise," Ron said, disbelief coloring his voice, but he did leave to find the owl.

Harry watched him go, then turned towards the two teenagers. "What are we making?"

"Vegetable lasagna," Sheryl said, while Billy shrugged behind her, making a face.

"Sounds okay," Harry said. "If you need a hand, let me know."

"We're all set," Billy said. Harry noticed he wasn't looking at the bags while he said that.

"Billy!" Sheryl glared. "Stop scrutinizing the goods and take out the vegetables and start scrubbing!"

Billy leered. "Aye, Ma'm. Always happy to follow orders."

"Billy," Harry warned. There was a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth, so the reprimand lost some of its urgency.

"He's doing it again, isn't he?" Ron said as he returned with a letter in his hand.

"I'm not doing anything," Billy protested and took out a pack of carrots.

Sheryl laughed. " _Please_ ," she said. "Like you're ever doing nothing."

"Very true," Ron said. "That reminds me of the time when we were fifteen... Harry, do you remember Cho Chang?"

"Ron, don't you dare!"

"Who's Cho Chang?" Sheryl asked with a chuckle as she started placing their purchases into cabinets and cupboards all over the kitchen.

Billy snorted. "HSSH - gosh, aren't you even a little bit curious, Sher? It was, like, all over the papers a couple of years ago."

"Six years ago, to be exact, and what do you know about those papers, you were nine years old at the time!"

"I'm good like that." Billy struck a pose of victory. "Also, Hermione's a great help when it comes to doing research."

Ron gaped. "She gave you old newspapers with sordid stories about Harry's love life?"

Sheryl burst out with laughter. "Billy, you're impossible! I bet you asked her under the pretense of finding out more about Voldemort's Second Rise! You lying little rat!"

Harry blinked at Ron. "He is, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "I'm going to grill Hermione next time she comes over. Bet she didn't see this coming!"

"So," Billy said, inching up towards Sheryl. "Now that we've established my brilliance, how about I show you some of that up in my room?"

Sheryl patted his cheek. "You never give up, do you?"

"Inexhaustible," Billy said, "that's my middle name." He winked. "In all important areas, if you know what I mean."

"Billy!" Harry said. "What did we say about immoral offers?"

Billy grinned. "Not before dinner?"

Ron fell back into his chair laughing. "That's my boy!"

 

~*~

~~ _written in December 2007_


End file.
